Newspaper Clippings ~ G

This post is part of a series for the April Blogging from A to Z Blogging Challenge. My theme is Newspaper Clippings in relation to my family history. These have come from both microfilmed and digitized newspapers I've searched over the past 25 years. Click to enlarge any clipping.

Genealogy Info!

From the headlines to the classifieds, all kinds of genealogy information is in newspapers. It's limitless. Which is why it made a great topic for this challenge. So, I'll just mention a few of the  "G" words here.



Golden Wedding Anniversaries

My Second Great Grandparents, Charles & Henrietta Gaisford, as well as both of my paternal Great Grandparents celebrated their Golden wedding anniversaries with family gatherings that made the paper. There is so much great genealogy information in these! Unfortunately, the women were not refered to by their own names. I found these digital images online, but I already had each article. The photos come out much better from the digital images. 

Lincoln [NE] Evening Journal,
October 28, 1956

Mr. and Mrs. Albert Menke of Clatonia marked their 50th wedding anniversary last Sunday with a reception in their home. 
Albert Menke and Lottie Roscoe were married on Oct. 18, 1906 in the same room of their home where the reception was held. The couple have had 13 children, 12 of whom are living. They are Harold Menke of DeWitt, Lawrence Menke of Beatrice, Willis Menke of Diller, Cecil Menke of Bellevue, Mrs. Roy Buttgenbach of Colby, Kan., Kenneth Menke of Aurora, Rosie Menke of Lincoln, and Mms. John Weichel of Alvo, Les Kubic of Beatrice, and Neal Swanson of Lincoln. Elwood Menke and Clarence Menke of Ocala, Fla., were unable to attend the observance. The Menkes have 27 grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren." 

Beatrice [NE] Express, June 2, 1917

Golden Wedding
Just fifty years ago on May 23, 1867, occurred the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Gaisford and last Wednesday, May 23, their folks gathered to honor them. Mr. and Mrs. Gaisford have nine living children, twenty-six grand children and one great grandchild all living in or near Ellis with the exception of Chas. Gaisford, Jr. who with his family resides in Oklahoma. Those who were able to be present to help them celebrate were Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Carpenter and family, Mr. and Mrs. Harlan Weaver and daughter Rachel, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Amos, Grandma Carpenter of Harbine and Mrs. Orion Miller. All enjoyed a fine dinner and ice cream and cake was served in the afternoon. Mr. and Mrs. Gaisford have a host of friends in this vicinity who congratulate them on their long happy life together.

 

Beatrice [NE] Daily Sun,
July 10, 1949

50th Wedding Anniversary Is Honored 

A beautifully decorated cake surrounded by flowers received from friends and rrelatives made the home of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Mann, 113 S Sumner, an attractive setting for the celebration of their golden wedding anniversary July 5th. 

Following an afternoon of visiting with out-of-town guests, a lawn dinner was enjoyed by members of the family and relatives.

Family group pictures were taken immediately followed by open house. Cake and punch were served to the many friends and relatives who called. The honored couple received many flowers and gifts. Mrs. Orra Mann was in charge of the floral arrangements. Mrs. Frank Carpenter presided over the gift table and guest book. 

All 13 children were present as were all the grandchildren except one who is in California. Only one son-in-law, who was ill, was unable to be present.Present were: Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wierman, Pearle Nickeson and Donald Roe Hudson and family, Lester Mann and daughters, Orra Mann and Gary, Frank Carpenter, Earl Bartlett and sons, Lyman Bartlett and family, Elmer Krebs and family, Kenneth Menke and family, Dean Mann and family, Robert Phelps and daughters, Harley Kollekowski and Dennis, John Mathias and family, Dee Hudson, Wade Hudson and Rebecca and Mrs. Rulo Rathbun and daughters. Out-of-town guests were: Mr. and Mrs. Joe Kirk and Norma Jane, Larimar, Ia., Mr. and Mrs. Albert Vohs, Edson, Kas., Mrs. Ida Mann, Goodland, Kas., Mrs. Estelle Kirk, St. Charles, Ia., Mr. and Mrs. Orra Mann, Omaha, and Mr. and mrs. Roe Hudson, Fairbury. 

Graduates 

Giltner [NE] Gazette, May 19, 1927

My Grandpa's High School graduating class was listed in this clipping from the Giltner Gazette. Stanley Bell is listed just after Miss Leola Bell who is not related, but Lessie Alcorn is his cousin and Marie Dieckmann later became his sister-in-law. 

The [Lincoln, NE] Evening State Journal,
May 29, 1924

Grandpa's oldest brother George Oren graduated from Cotner College in 1924. I knew he had gone to this college, and this clipping is just one of a few I found thanks to digitized papers online. 



I've got many more clippings of graduates in my family. My name was even in the local paper for my Eighth Grade graduation. Gotta love small towns!







Lots of anniversaries and graduations are announced through social media. These are great events to add to your family history files. Make a note, copy and paste or take a screenshot of these postings to add to their stories.

If you have a family member involved in local government, you would likely find their name in the paper. So much great genealogy information can be found in newspapers to help provide a glimpse of your ancestors lives. Take a look, you will be glad you did. Good luck with your search!

Newspaper Clippings ~ F

This post is part of a series for the April Blogging from A to Z April Blogging Challenge. My theme is Newspaper Clippings in relation to my family history. These have come from both microfilmed and digitized newspapers I've searched over the past 25 years. Click to enlarge any clipping.

 Farm Sales


The majority of my ancestors were farmers and it's great to find a notice of the sale of their farm or farm equipment in the newspaper. A sale bill will include a list of their implements, possibly some livestock and a description of the location of their farm. 


This "Menke farm" had been in the family since about 1879. Patriarch Henry Menke died in 1915 and his wife kept it going with the help of their son, my Great Grandfather Albert. 

Beatrice [NE] Daily Sun, August 6, 1944

Often there is so much information about the equipment and livestock they had for sale. Notice there is no tractor listed in this one from 1940 of my Great Grandpa Mann's sale.  He preferred to work with horses. 

Beatrice [NE] Daily Sun, March 1, 1940

Giltner [NE] Gazette, October 12, 1934

Cicero Bell sold his farm during the depression. He was 65 years old at the time, but apparently the "son" (who may have been my Grandpa) didn't plan to continue farming. I wrote about this and included a transcription of the sale bill here.  A unique thing about the Giltner Gazette is that a man named Gerald E. Sherard wrote a book in which he abstracted names from the Giltner Gazette from 1918 to 1962, along with much more of the history of Giltner. He notes the date of the issue where the names occur, which make finding them very easy. ¹
 

Besides Funeral notices, family and friends who attend from out of town are occasionally noted in old newspapers, often in the social columns separately from the obituary.  It's nice to see that relatives from a distance made the trip for a loved ones funeral. Like all the way from Canada in 1923.    

DeWitt [NE]Times-News, May, 1923

A road trip to Oklahoma in 1941 for a funeral included my Grandparents, Great Grandparents and other relatives of my Grandma's aunt. I wonder how many cars were in this caravan.

Beatrice [NE] Daily Sun, May 6, 1941

Not so long of a trip, it's nice to see that the Lee family of Hastings attended the funeral of their uncle and brother-in-law. Hastings to Harvard is a short 20 mile drive. This is the only time I've seen Josiah referred to as "Cy". 

Harvard [NE] Courier, April 20,1922

Some of my newspaper clippings with my own name include the results of my 4-H exhibits at the County Fair. I have some of my Dad's, too. More articles I've found include Fraternal organizations that my ancestors were involved in.  

Fun little tidbits about your ancestors in old papers help fill the dash between their birth and death dates. For me, they help fulfill a desire to know more about them. What can you find? Good luck with your search!

---

SOURCES:
1 "Historical Sketches of Giltner, Nebraska, by Gerald E. Sherard, 1985, Gateway Press Inc., Baltimore ^↩

 

Newspaper Clippings ~ E

This post is part of a series for the April Blogging from A to Z April Blogging Challenge. My theme is Newspaper Clippings in relation to my family history. These have come from both microfilmed and digitized newspapers I've searched over the past 25 years. Click to enlarge any clipping.

 Engagement Announcement

From recent newspapers, I have a lot of engagement announcements. It isn't often I've found a clipping of an engagement announcement in old newspapers, but in this case it's the only record I have of the marriage of my Great Grandmother's sister, Merlin Belle Jorgenson to Earl McKee. I don't have an exact date yet for their marriage and I can't find any official marriage license or certificate. I'm not sure where the wedding actually took place.

When I visited the Peotone, Illinois Public Library, I found this on microfilm and searched for an article on the wedding, but couldn't find one. I've also searched microfilm newspapers at the Abraham Lincoln Library in Springfield, Illinois with no success.  The paper I needed was almost too faded to read.

Peotone [IL] Vedette, August 4, 1911

Belle fascinates me and I've written about her before. I've followed her teaching career in the paper. She was also apparently somewhat of an Entertainer and I've found her name in various newspapers throughout her life. The California Digital Newspaper Collection has several articles where she is mentioned by name.  

Los Angeles [CA] Herald, November 22, 1913

Los Angeles [CA] Herald, December 20, 1913

Los Angeles [CA] Herald, March 8, 1917

Over the years, I've had family members who ran for public office. The Election results are always printed in the paper. I also have clippings of couples in my family who Eloped.  Not everything makes the paper, but you can enrich the stories of your ancestors through newspaper articles. Good luck with your search! 

Newspaper Clippings ~ D

This post is part of a series for the April Blogging from A to Z April Blogging Challenge. My theme is Newspaper Clippings in relation to my family history. These have come from both microfilmed and digitized newspapers I've searched over the past 25 years. Click to enlarge any clipping.

 Death notices 

Long, detailed obituaries about ancestors are always nice to find. Sometimes only a one-sentence death notice is all that is printed in the newspaper.   Even though this one doesn't seem to say much about my Fourth Great Grandmother, Esther Simmons, it tells me that the family had moved from Pennsylvania to Illinois by 1839. Earlier than any other record I have of them.  

Commercial Advertisor, [New York, NY] October 19, 1839, pg 1

Microfilmed newspapers of the DeWitt Times-News are missing issues just after the death of my Third Great Grandfather, David A Roscoe. This is all that I've been able to find and probably all that I ever will about his death.  At least it tells me something about his cause of death. 

The Opposition, [Saline Co., NE] May 22, 1884

Through the Kentucky Digital Library's Historic Newspapers, I was able to find this sentence about my Third Great Grandmother from Wayne County. The Wayne Count Outlook is available online, but it seems to be missing a couple of issues immediately following her death on April 11 and I haven't found anything later. 

Interior Journal, Stanford, [KY] April 23, 1907

This old clipping was among a list of death notices in Lisbon, Connecticut. Austin Bliss is my Fourth Great Grandfather. No full obituary appeared in the Norwich Aurora that I've ever found. Maybe someday a Lisbon paper will be made available online. 

Norwich Aurora, [CT] January 11, 1871

A little longer paragraph was allowed for my Third Great Grandfather Henry Knapp within the social column for Powellsville, Ohio news. His wife did actually survive him another three and a half years, but to my knowledge her death was not in the news. 

Portsmouth [OH] Daily Times, January 23, 1892

A librarian in Worcester, Massachusetts send me this clipping of my Third Great Grandfather's death. This was where I learned his middle name.  Nothing more was found about him in the paper. 

Worcester [MA] Daily Spy, December 23, 1903

Obituaries can be very expensive to have printed in newspapers. Possibly the reason some of these are all I've been able to find. Today many obituaries can be found and copied for your records from the funeral home's website. Most likely they are longer than one sentence.

Dances are always advertised in newspapers. If I knew more about the dance where my Grandparents met, I could likely find it advertised in the local paper. And then there are Divorces. I have some of those, too. Diamonds are valuable gems, but articles from old newspapers about ancestors are priceless. It's worth a look. Good luck with your search!

Newspaper Clippings ~ C

This post is part of a series for the April Blogging from A to Z April Blogging Challenge. My theme is Newspaper Clippings in relation to my family history. These have come from both microfilmed and digitized newspapers I've searched over the past 25 years.  Click to enlarge any clipping.

Card of Thanks

Tyler [TX} Daily Courier-Times, Monday, August 2, 1920 pg 2

Often with or after an obituary the family will run a "Card of Thanks" as a way to show their appreciation to the general public who they felt helped and supported them. In this case, this is the only record of the death of Rebecca Bell, wife of Elijah, that's been found. I have no access to this local paper and didn't look myself, but a helpful librarian in Tyler, Texas found this and tried but didn't find an obituary. 

DeWitt [NE] Times-News, March 30, 1923

Mary C Roscoe had remarried in 1891, but that fact seemed to be ignored by the Roscoe family. This Card of Thanks is one example of that. I think her second husband was bad news. As I do sometimes, this is a photo of the microfilm screen that I took with my phone to keep this. Saves time moving the reel of film from one reader to an open reader that will print a copy. 

Church activities and other church news is one way that female ancestors make the papers, although sometimes still with only their husband's first name. This is from 1947, "Mrs. C Bell" is my great grandma.  

Aurora [NE] News-Register, August 8, 1947

Beatrice [NE] Daily Sun, October 11, 1944

Grandma, aka "Mrs Kenneth Menke", was always active in her church, as well as her sisters both Mrs. Bartlett's here. 

Hamilton County [NE] Republican Register, June 3, 1930

My other Grandma at age 13, Violet McGrath and her Sunday School class literally took a hike. Some of these other girls named here may be in some old photos we have - a clue for helping identify them. 







Many funeral homes now have an option for people to electronically send notes to the family which are sometimes made public. It's been my experience that the funeral home shares a printed copy for the immediate family. For family history, copies of these can also be added to that deceased person's notes with your research. 

My collection of clippings also include articles covering college students news, club activities and family celebrations of all kinds. Can you think of anything that start with "C" that would relate to your ancestors? Good luck with your search!

Newspaper Clippings ~ B

This post is part of a series for the April Blogging from A to Z April Blogging Challenge. My theme is Newspaper Clippings in relation to my family history. These have come from both microfilmed and digitized newspapers I've searched over the past 25 years. Click to enlarge any clipping.

Births 

Birth announcements are common in newspapers now and sometimes can be found in old papers. I really expected to find one for my Grandma and her twin brother in 1920, but it didn't make the local paper. I do have recent birth announcements, but I won't post those of my living family members here. 

Tobias [NE] Times, May 16, 1941

Birthday parties I've got! My own first birthday got a couple of paragraphs in my hometown paper. When my Second Great Grandmother had her 100th birthday it made three different newspapers.  This one from the Tobias Times was copied in the Lincoln Journal Star and the Beatrice Daily Sun in May of 1941. There were also mentions of her 95th and 98th birthdays in the Clatonia news columns of the Beatrice Daily Sun.  ,

Beatrice [NE] Daily Sun, September 9, 1922

Another Second Great Grandmother Henrietta Gaisford had more than one birthday party written up in the paper over time. Her 74th here is from the Beatrice Daily Sun, September 9, 1922. It might come close to mentioning her entire family - even those who didn't make it. 

Beatrice [NE] Daily Sun, January 29, 1948

Henrietta's daughter Maime was honored on her 78th birthday. Maime never married and always lived with her parents or other family. I have not been able to learn much about her yet. For her 78th birthday, she was surprised by many female members of her family and friends. She lived to be 89 years old. 

Business 

News about my ancestors business affairs that I find in newspapers is always interesting. I  found this in online newspapers at the Illinois Digital Newspapers site. James Gaisford was a weaver, so he and his son opening a factory to make rugs makes sense. 

Weekly Pantagraph, [McLean Co., IL] November 11, 1904

My Great Grandfather Cicero Bell started mercantile businesses a couple different times, and then would quit and return to farming. Here in 1906 he buys a Blue Grass farm in a different county from where I ever knew him to live. I wish the article mentioned the name of the store he left. The second clipping below doesn't mention him, but he also had an interest in the Conoco Service Station that my Grandpa and his brother ran in 1934.

Aurora [NE] News-Register, October 12, 1934

Birth announcements are very common on social media like Facebook and Instagram, often with photos. First photos of new babies are so sweet. These announcements can be saved by taking a screenshot or copying/pasting them into your personal family history records. Remember copyright issues and don't repost them to online trees.

I have other articles about Bible study groups and Baptisms among my relatives. With many of my ancestors being farmers, I might someday find an article about an ancestors barn raising or a barn dance. You can build your knowledge of your ancestors by burrowing through old newspapers. What other "B" words come to mind? Good luck with your search! 

Newspaper Clippings ~ A

This post is part of a series for the April Blogging from A to Z April Blogging Challenge. My theme is Newspaper Clippings in relation to my family history. These have come from both microfilmed and digitized newspapers I've searched over the past 25 years. Click to enlarge any clipping.

Advertisements


Newspapers are all about Advertising. It's interesting to find advertisements that mention family members and their businesses. They are a great way to learn about the way your ancestors earned money, as well as where they may have spent it. Most of my ancestors were farmers, but I've been surprised to learn of some of the businesses owned or managed by my family members through ads. 


Searching through the DeWitt Times-News on microfilm, I found that my Second Great Grandfather William Roscoe was a windmill dealer in 1884. Another ancestor who worked in the windmill industry was my Great Grandfather Clarence Mann, who worked for Dempster Mills in Beatrice later in the 1940's. 

DeWitt [NE] Times-News, April, 1884

Aurora [NE] Republican, January 8, 1909

The library in Aurora, Nebraska has old Aurora newspapers digitized (but available only at the library), which was how I found that my Great Grandfather Art McGrath advertised his poultry business in 1909. With enough time someday, I want to try to find how long this business was in operation. 

Something else I learned in Aurora was that my Grandpa owned a service station with his brother in Aurora in 1934. I have written more about this here. 

Aurora [NE] News-Register, October 26, 1934

Accidents are news and often written about in newspapers. Art McGrath had a little mishap in 1931 that was kinda costly.  Everyone was all right after this one. I had never heard about this. 

Hamilton County [NE] Republican Register, September 25,1931

Aurora [NE] News-Register,
December 21, 1967

Art's son, Virg, had a close call too. This happened shortly before Christmas in December, 1967. Had he just come from the Stockham Cemetery? Uncle Virg was always at our Christmas dinners (and Thanksgiving, and Easter, etc.), but this story didn't make dinner conversation at any one I remember.

Crete News is a recently added online and searchable paper.  I found this little clipping in the issue dated April 6, 1944, but it was under a column of news from ten years earlier. My Grandpa would have been 17 years old when this happened. 

Best of all, newspapers provide Answers to questions about ancestors. Like this clipping about how my Second Great Grandmother's brother ended up in Oklahoma when none of the rest of the family did. 

Beatrice [NE] Daily Sun, February 4, 1903

In doing family history research, these old newspaper clippings that mention ancestors gives detail and insight into what their life was like. Today, social media is free advertising. The descendants of current living people may or may not be able to find old social media posts in the future, we don't know at this point. "Clippings" of social media posts can be added to offline genealogy software to help preserve those things for future generations.

Agriculture is a big part of my family and I have some articles from recent newspapers about their agricultural achievements. What other "A" words associated with your ancestors can you think of to look for in old newspapers? Good luck with your search!